Hi. I'm Jon Jagger.
I help software teams improve their effectiveness.
I built cyber-dojo, the place teams practice programming.
I'm based in the UK.
I've worked in 22 countries.
If you don't like my work, I won't invoice you.
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I was speaking to Olaf Lewitz at the awesome Oslo coach camp last week.
We were discussing why drinking coffee doesn't create the same social dynamic as smoking cigarettes.
I chatted with Geir Amdal too and quite by chance he mentioned he's given up smoking. And how approaching
a work colleague and asking if they want to go outside for
a smoke is not the same as asking if they want to go outside for a talk.

Then I remembered something Olve Maudal said to me recently.
He said that kids being allowed to eat sweets on Sundays was not really
about kids being allowed to eat sweets on Sundays at all. It was really about
kids not being allowed to eat sweets on any day except
Sunday. Similarly, apparently in the USA when you're driving along you sometimes
see a big sign at the side of the road saying "Litter here" and then another
sign a mile or so later saying "Stop littering".
These signs are also not really about littering. They're about
not littering in the places outside the designated littering
zones.

There's a crucial difference between smoking and drinking coffee.
Smokers tend to smoke in groups in designated areas because smoking is not allowed
except in those areas.
Coffee is different. Drinking coffee is, by default, allowed everywhere.
When you want a coffee you walk to the coffee machine and make a cup of coffee.
There's often no one else at the coffee machine so you take your
cup of coffee back to your work desk. It is precisely this take-it-back-to-your-desk
default which is why there is only rarely someone else at the coffee machine.
It is a self-fulfilling dynamic.

If you want to encourage more social interaction between your team
members here's what you might do:

Buy machines that make really good coffee.

Put them in a nice area with lots of space to congregate in.

Ban drinking coffee at work-desks.

The third step might seem a bit draconian. But it's vital. You could justify
it on the grounds that spilling coffee onto expensive computers will waste money.
But the real reason it to encourage developers to drink their coffee
near the coffee machine. Together. To encourage communication.